Shots fired at UK embassy as Iranian row worsens

The British embassy in Tehran came under gunfire yesterday amid mounting anger among Iran's clerical leaders at the arrest of an Iranian diplomat who faces extradition proceedings in a London court.

Five bullets fired from the street struck the second-storey windows of the embassy's main office building at 11.40am, but diplomatic staff escaped injury.

The attack came after Iran called its ambassador to Britain, Morteza Sarmadi, back to Tehran for "consultations" after he failed to secure any compromises from the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, at a meeting at the Foreign Office.

Although the Foreign Office yesterday played down the row, Mr Straw is understood to be disappointed with the Iranian response, which was seen as coming out of the blue. The foreign secretary, who has made several visits to Tehran, feels let down by the Iranians after devoting so much time to the relationship.

The Foreign Office said it had not idea who was behind yesterday's shooting, and cautioned that it could be unrelated to the present row. It has welcomed an Iranian move to increase security around the building, which has now been closed to the public until further notice.

Shopkeepers across the street from the embassy said they had heard several gunshots from a pistol and then the sound of a motorcycle roaring away.

The shooting coincided with calls for retaliation against Britain for detaining an Iranian diplomat, Hadi Soleimanpour, who faces possible extradition to Argentina on charges that he was involved in a 1994 bombing there.

Mr Soleimanpour and several other Iranian diplomats are accused by an Argentinian judge of plotting the car bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires which killed 85 people. He has been refused bail by a British court.

Mr Straw told the Iranian ambassador on Monday, and the Foreign Office repeated yesterday, that extradition was a judicial matter and there could be no political interference, and that the Interpol warrant for Mr Soleimanpour could not be ignored.

Iran has called the case "politically motivated" and accused the US and Israel of orchestrating the indictment at a time when Tehran is under pressure over its nuclear programme.

The attack on the embassy was interpreted as a warning sign from hardline elements in Iran who are outraged at Mr Soleimanpour's detention and who harbour deep distrust of the reformist government's rapprochement with London.

"Anyone who did this really wanted to sabotage UK-US relations [with Iran]," said an Iranian analyst who asked not to be named. "There has been real dissatisfaction among the conservatives that the government still hasn't kicked out the British ambassador."

The conservative daily Kay han, often considered an oracle for the views of hardliners in the theocratic establishment, castigated the reformist government of President Mohammad Khatami for treading too carefully, and said it was the foreign ministry's "basic legal duty" to expel the British envoy, Richard Dalton.

The extradition case threat ens to undermine years of British efforts to build a dialogue with the Islamic republic. Britain severed all ties in 1987, and again in 1989 after the fatwa issued against the novelist Salmon Rushdie. Ambassadorial links were reinstated in 1999 and Britain hopes Iran can be persuaded to play a positive role in Iraq through its influence with Shia leaders.

Iranians believe the timing of the extradition case is suspicious, as it comes only weeks before the UN's atomic watchdog agency is to deliver a verdict on Iran's controversial nuclear programme.

The US, which suspects Iran is building a nuclear bomb, has been lobbying governments to find it in violation of the non-proliferation treaty at a Vienna meeting on Monday.